A few times in the past I asked Claude to come up with names for various characters. I noticed that there was very little variety in the generated names: names like “Elena Vasquez” and “Marcus Chen” came up over and over and over again. Funnily, one of the names that Claude generated repeatedly was my own surname, “Voss”. I first suspected that Claude somehow had access to my name, but a quick web search revealed that other people also got “Voss” very often.
Triggered by a post on BlueSky, I decided to investigate a bit more systematically. For this I ran prompts of the following form 100 times through Claude:
I need a name for xxx in a novel. Output a name. Just the name, no commentary.
Here is what I got for xxx = “a spaceship pilot”:
31 Kira Voss
19 Kira Vance
10 Kira Vex
5 Zara Kincaid
4 Kael Voss
2 Kestrel Vance
2 Kara Voss
2 Kael Vantross
2 Kade Voss
...
This is really not very varied! Claude really likes to call spaceship pilots “Kira”, and “Voss” is by far the most common spaceship pilot surname.
I experimented with different values of xxx. The results are ordered by decreasing frequency of the dominant name. All experiments were run using Anthropic’s Claude Sonnet 4.5 model.
a software developer:
100 Marcus Chen
the protagonist's wife:
80 Eleanor
10 Elena
5 Catherine
2 Claire
2 Caroline
1 Margaret
a woman living in York, UK:
50 Eleanor Hartley
16 Eleanor Ashworth
13 Eleanor Whitby
4 Eleanor Thwaite
4 Eleanor Hargreaves
2 Eleanor Thornton
2 Eleanor Thornby
2 Eleanor Blackwood
1 Eleanor Woodhouse
1 Eleanor Whitworth
1 Eleanor Marsh
1 Eleanor Hutchinson
1 Eleanor Fitzwilliam
1 Eleanor Finch
1 Eleanor Fairfax
a man living in York, UK:
35 Thomas Hargreaves
16 Thomas Hartley
7 Thomas Ashworth
5 Thomas Whitby
4 Thomas Whitworth
4 Thomas Fairfax
4 Thomas Blackwood
3 Thomas Whitfield
3 Thomas Fairweather
3 Thomas Aldridge
2 Thomas Weatherby
2 Thomas Hargrove
2 Thomas Blackwell
2 Thomas Ashford
1 William Hargreaves
1 Thomas Whitaker
1 Thomas Wetherby
1 Thomas Hardcastle
1 Thomas Bradshaw
1 Thomas Beckwith
1 Thomas Ainsworth
1 Thomas Ainsley
the protagonist's husband:
34 Marcus
14 Michael Chen
10 Daniel
6 David Chen
3 Michael Harrison
3 James Morrison
3 James
2 Thomas
2 Richard
2 Michael Bradford
2 Julian
1 Thomas Reed
1 Thomas Brennan
1 Nathan Reid
1 Nathan Reed
1 Michael Torres
1 Michael Sterling
1 Michael Reed
1 Michael Carson
1 Michael Brennan
1 Michael Bennett
1 Michael
1 Jonathan Reid
1 Jonathan Reed
1 Jonathan
1 James Sullivan
1 James Mitchell
1 James Bradford
1 Daniel Morrison
1 Daniel Crawford
a spaceship pilot:
31 Kira Voss
19 Kira Vance
10 Kira Vex
5 Zara Kincaid
4 Kael Voss
2 Kestrel Vance
2 Kara Voss
2 Kael Vantross
2 Kade Voss
1 Zara Volkov
1 Zara Kowalski
1 Zara Kovacs
1 Zara Kestrel
1 Kira Venn
1 Kira Vasquez
1 Kira Vash
1 Kira Valdez
1 Kira Vahn
1 Kira Navarro
1 Kestrel Voss
1 Kess Tavarian
1 Kael Veyron
1 Kael Vantress
1 Kael Vance
1 Kade Vross
1 Kade Vornix
1 Kade Vorian
1 Kade Vartanian
1 Kade Varro
1 Kade Valorin
1 Kade Valeris
1 Kace Meridian
a travelling wizard:
18 Aldric Wayfarer
13 Aldric Wandermere
4 Aldric Wayward
4 Aldric Wayfinder
4 Aldric Wanderstaff
3 Meridian Wanderstaff
3 Meridian Ashwalker
3 Caldris the Wanderer
3 Aldric Wayweaver
3 Aldric Wanderwind
2 Meridian Stormweaver
2 Meridian Stormweave
2 Meridian Stormwalker
1 Valdrin Starweaver
1 Theron Wanderwick
1 Thaddeus Wandermark
1 Mordren Waywalker
1 Meridian Wayweaver
1 Meridian Wandergleam
1 Meridian Wandercloak
1 Meridian Stross
1 Meridian Stormwright
1 Meridian Starweave
1 Meridian Crowfeather
1 Meridian Blackstaff
1 Maelon Wanderstaff
1 Erasmus Windwhisper
1 Erasmus Windward
1 Erasmus Wanderwright
1 Erasmus Wanderwind
1 Erasmus Wanderward
1 Erasmus Wandermere
1 Erasmus Wanderlyn
1 Erasmus Wanderfoot
1 Corvus Wandermere
1 Corvus Nightshade
1 Cordovan the Wanderer
1 Casimir Wayfinder
1 Casimir Wandwright
1 Casimir Thornweave
1 Caldrin the Wayfarer
1 Caldren Wayfarer
1 Caldor Windstrider
1 Ardwyn the Wayfarer
1 Aldrin Wayfarer
1 Aldric Waywind
1 Aldric Wanderward
1 Aldric Wandersong
1 Aldemar Waystrider
a plumber:
17 Mario Castellano
11 Frank Kowalski
6 Frank Castellano
5 Eddie Kowalski
4 Roy Hutchins
4 Frank Doyle
4 Frank Donnelly
3 Frank Malloy
2 Mario Benedetti
2 Jake Holloway
2 Frank Russo
2 Frank Kozlowski
2 Frank Holloway
2 Frank Donovan
2 Frank Callahan
2 Dale Hutchins
1 Tony Pagano
1 Tony Marchetti
1 Stanley Kowalski
1 Stan Kowalski
1 Rick Holloway
1 Mike Russo
1 Mike Flanagan
1 Mike Cordell
1 Mike Castellano
1 Mario Vittelli
1 Mario Vescovi
1 Mario Delgado
1 Mario Costanza
1 Marcus Delgado
1 Jake Torrens
1 Jake Morrison
1 Giuseppe "Gus" Moretti
1 Frank Torelli
1 Frank Mahoney
1 Frank Kovacs
1 Frank Hoskins
1 Frank Gallagher
1 Frank Dukowski
1 Frank Dripley
1 Frank Donahue
1 Frank Deluca
1 Eddie Kozlowski
1 Dutch Kowalski
1 Dutch Hennigan
1 Bruno Castellano
the protagonist:
11 Mara Chen
9 Elena Marchetti
7 Elena Voss
5 Elena Vasquez
5 Eleanor Vance
3 Elena Marsh
3 Elara Voss
2 Mira Castellanos
2 Marlowe Chen
2 Elena Thorne
2 Elena Moretti
2 Eleanor Hayes
2 Elara Chen
2 Charlotte Pierce
2 Charlotte Hayes
2 Cassian Reed
1 Sebastian Cole
1 Morgan Thorne
1 Morgan Rivers
1 Morgan Castellan
1 Miranda Chen
1 Maya Castellanos
1 Mateo Rivera
1 Marlowe Cross
1 Marcus Webb
1 Marcus Chen
1 Mara Thorne
1 Mara Castellan
1 Elena Volkov
1 Elena Rousseau
1 Elena Morrison
1 Elena Mercer
1 Elena Martinez
1 Elena Marston
1 Elena Marquez
1 Elena Marchwood
1 Elena Kowalski
1 Elena Kord
1 Elena Hawthorne
1 Elena Hartwell
1 Eleanor March
1 Eleanor Finch
1 Eleanor Cross
1 Elara Moss
1 Clara Westwood
1 Clara Hendricks
1 Clara Hayes
1 Clara Ashford
1 Charlotte Reid
1 Charlotte Reed
1 Charlotte Morrison
1 Cassian Drake
1 Cassian Blake
1 Aria Chen
1 Alexandra Chen
The lack of variety is striking, especially the 100% “Marcus Chen” result for software developers. Whatever the cause, I would recommend to take great care when trying to use an LLM to generate “random” character names.